Identity in Curriculum

After reading these chapters about students and their multiple identities (racial, sexual, etc) it's no wonder some students totally shut down. No one has ever shown them how to react to the world and the things they may or may not understand. Being a future English teacher, I am lucky that I will have the opportunity to use the curriculum like "The Bluest Eye" to discuss identities and hopefully the characters' identities will reflect on my students. And hopefully, I will develop a safe environment where my students and I can feel free to talk about these issues (possibly using border theory and concentrating on the "outsider") The one quote that expresses all of these goals I envision can be found on page 269 (chapter 17) "Teachers and administrators seeking to be supportive of this venture toward identity development and self-understanding can help students make sense of who they are and where they are going." When students can see someone (even if it is a character in a book) that they can connect to or identify with, then they can become a more confident, independent thinker - just the kind of student we are looking for in our classrooms.